Goodbye

by Sarah Staehelin

“And you’re sure that's all we need to do?” We asked the lawyer in disbelief.

We had called him to ask how to officially found an association.

The lawyer responded: “Absolutely! Founding an association is super easy. Grab a pen and write down the following sentences: ...”

He started dictating. Chaos broke out! We weren't ready for this! We were in the car speeding down the highway in the dark! What followed were a couple minutes of everyone frantically screaming and yelling, while Andi looked through everything he could find in the front seat. Dilana pulled out all the bags from the trunk and Sarah was just doing her best to not crash the car.

And just like that on the 28th of March 2020 “smusi” was founded. Our declaration of existence scribbled on the back of a parking permit, somewhere between Zürich and Thurgau.

While that surely wasn’t how we expected the founding to happen, it’s quite fitting. We had been planning an association for months, and by planning we mean thinking of what to name it. While we don’t remember who came up with the name “smusi” it stuck out as the obvious favorite for a long time. Why? Definitely not because it sounds like smoothie. A logo that was designed to look like a smoothie glass followed shortly after.

So, by the time we got to Lugano we had already sorted out Name, Logo, and Statutes (mildly updated from those we had written in the car). However, despite our collective experiences with student associations at ETH, the process of becoming a functioning association that actually had something to offer its students wasn’t always easy. The combination of the pandemic, having no money and almost no experience with Lugano or USI made for a rocky start. USI itself also wasn’t quite ready yet for our enthusiasm and the little experience with student life we brought from ETH. But luckily, we had a group of passionate people with some time on their hands and the desire (and flat space to spare) to do something with it. Adjusting to a new city, a new language, a new university all took time, but we eventually went from a group of students with a bunch of cool ideas in our heads to a functional student association.

Next to all the work we’ve done in Lugano we were also able to make an impact on a national level and participated in determining the course swimsa is going to take in the future. We’re proud of how active we were as a student association and have received amazing (and sometimes jealous) feedback from all over Switzerland on how well things seem to be going down here.

But now our time here has come to pass. In the past 2 years we have done our best to create an association that serves the interests of our students and we have done our best to create a solid foundation so those who come after us can focus on growth rather than survival.

A note to the new smusi Executive Board: Thank you all for taking over from us! We are excited to see what you all do with this and cannot wait to come hangout again in Spring of 2023.

Some advice going forward: We are a small course of study. Make use of that! Think of things you would love to do/experience with your friends and then do that, but for everyone. We’re so few students so our connection to each other is tighter than most other universities. Involve as many people as you can and support as many events and ideas as possible.

And to everyone who usually doesn’t organize events: Enjoy them but also help make them awesome! Give the people organizing new ideas, participate frequently and challenge them to do great things!

In general: Enjoy your time here, together!
That’s all we have to say. Goodbye everyone! It’s been a blast <3